Classroom Resources

Making a Marine Debris “MAP”: A Guide to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project for EducatorsThe NOAA Marine Debris Program created Making a Marine Debris “MAP”: A Guide to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project for Educators (Guide) as a resource for educators who are interested in implementing Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP) surveys with their students. MDMAP is a NOAA community science initiative that volunteers around the world use to survey and record the amount and types of marine debris on shorelines. This Guide provides instructions and tips for participating in MDMAP and planning, conducting, and following up on monitoring surveys with student groups.MDMAP surveys are a great way to get students outside and onto the shoreline! You and your students will head to a local shoreline, search for debris in randomized sections, and record data you will contribute to a global database. While it is not required as a part of the MDMAP protocol, you can easily incorporate a full beach cleanup into your day. Check out the Introduction to MDMAP tutorial video to help visualize what your MDMAP experience can look like.How do we get started?The Monitoring Toolbox contains resources for conducting MDMAP surveys, including the Shoreline Survey Guide, from which this Guide for Educators is adapted. The more general Shoreline Survey Guide provides instructions for MDMAP volunteers of any background. The survey steps are all the same, but this Guide for Educators provides specific tips for working with students, including ideas for increasing student engagement and adapting the process for student groups as well as callouts of cross-curricular concepts and connections to disciplinary topics. It may be helpful to have a copy of the Shoreline Survey Guide at hand for reference when you are reviewing this Guide.This Guide will walk you through the steps for conducting MDMAP surveys, linked below. If you are looking for supplemental materials or curricula to facilitate learning about marine debris with your students, you can find resources on the NOAA Marine Debris Program website.